Its Power of thank you report, which surveyed 1,000 employees, found that three quarters (75%) of respondents feel that they do not receive sufficient gratitude from their employer for the work they do.

Nearly a third (32%) of respondents said that the most common form of recognition they experience was a simple thank you and less than a quarter (24%) receive recognition in the form of cash or gifts at least once a year.

The research also found:

71% of respondents would forgo a higher salary to work for an employer that regularly said thank you.

68% of respondents would reward their employer with loyalty for saying thank you.

34% of respondents would be unlikely to leave a position if there were shown regular appreciation and praise.

Declan Byrne (pictured), UK managing director at One4all rewards, said: “In a busy working environment it’s easy for managers to forget to say thank you as often as their employees would like them to, but failure to correct this will severely impact on performance and profitability.

“There is evidence that a simple thank you, delivered in the right way, can boost performance by as much as 44%, save considerable money through better staff retention and avoid the need to pay inflated salaries in order to attract people with the best skills.”